John Moores gave $4600 to Hillary Clinton
David Copley contributed $2000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee
San Diego Padres owner and nominal Democrat John Moores is hedging his bets in the presidential race. On March 30 and 31, he is listed as giving a total of $4600 to Hillary Clinton's "exploratory committee." On February 28, he gave $2300 to the campaign of Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut. His onetime sidekick at the Padres, Larry Lucchino, who now oversees the Boston Red Sox, also gave Dodd $1000. For her part, Lucchino's wife Stacey, another onetime San Diegan, gave Clinton $4600. Another friend of Moores's, the U-T's David Copley -- a lifelong Republican like his late mother Helen, who was a big fan of Richard Nixon's -- didn't dabble in presidential politics. Instead, he contributed $2000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee in March and $2500 to the National Republican Senatorial Committee in April. ... GOP senator Trent Lott leads the political pack so far this year in money raised by so-called Leadership PACs, those funds maintained by politicians who dole out the money to their favored campaigns. Lott's is called the New Republican Majority Fund and had receipts of $997,992 through April. The biggest local donor was Rancho Santa Fe's Michael Hammes, chairman and CEO of Sunrise Medical, a maker of power wheelchairs, who gave $2700 in February. Coming in second was Democracy for America, a fund-raising operation set up by former Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean, who accumulated $685,261. Downtown investment banker William D'Allaird gave $1000 to Dean's fund in April. Carol Cuatrecasas, wife of retired drug company executive Pedro Cuatrecasas of Rancho Santa Fe, also kicked in a total of $1000.